Bad Wolf Rising
by Wendi Jo Harper
Summary: She was given a choice - live a normal life, or be extraordinary and save lives. Who would be able to pass up the chance to help save the whole universe? Rose Tyler stepped out of her life and into a dream. But will the happiness and well being be worth all the sacrifices she will end up making, or is the Bad Wolf rising, only to come crashing back down?


_A/N: This time I'm going to try for more of a behind the scenes look, more original dialogue and interactions. If someone seems out of character, please tell me. I don't want to wreck this fandom that we love so much. And likely, if you're reading this, you love Rose like I do, and still wish she could have been an equal partner to the Doctor, and that she could have stayed._

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**Bad Wolf Rising: Bad Wolf at the Moment**

"_I don't understand. What is the Moment? I've never heard of it."_

"_The galaxy eater. The final work of the ancients of Gallifrey. A weapon so powerful, the operating system became sentient. According to legend, it developed a conscience."_

She heard them discussing her. She would have thought it was amusing, if she wasn't so annoyed. The Time Lords thought they knew what she was – the time of destruction. But she was more than that. She wasn't just A moment, she was EVERY moment, all at once. She saw the Time War. She saw the Time Lords who fought it. She saw all of the Doctor's existence, before, during, and after that all too brief association with a woman that the Moment found utterly fascinating, to the point she'd borrowed her form for this.

Rose Tyler was the right person to do what the Moment thought needed done. Someone was needed to protect the Doctor, to guide his long and difficult life, to push him when he needed pushed, to comfort him when he made the choices that had to be made. And beyond that, someone had to be strong enough to make those choices when he couldn't do it. In all the universes, there was only one Rose Tyler, and there would only be one. Because the Moment touched a TARDIS that felt much the same as she did and together they made her; the woman was as much a daughter of the Moment and a rather opinionated Type 40 TARDIS as she was of Pete and Jackie Tyler. She was made specifically for the Doctor, crafted to be his equal and partner. The problem was – he kept pushing her away!

The Moment looked over her creation's life, and that of the Doctor. The fault lie in that Rose hadn't had enough time to teach the Doctor to depend on her, and she didn't have the power to return to him every time he was stupid enough to send her away. But she could even fix that! She and the TARDIS could bump things just a bit…

Oh! He was going to actually talk to her now!

The Warrior Doctor opened his sack, revealing the beautifully ornate box he'd taken from the Citadel. Once he had it uncovered, he looked over it carefully, trying to work out the controls of this last weapon for ending the war. "How, how do you work? Why is there never a big red button?"

Outside, there came a sound that drew his attention, complete with a short howl. He opened the door and looked out. "Hello? Is somebody there?"

The Moment took that distraction as the right time to manifest and interact with the man who thought he was strong enough to destroy it all. She chose her form and sat on her casing. "It's nothing. It's just a wolf."

The Warrior Doctor turned in surprise, jumping over to grab her arm and yank her to her feet. "Don't sit on that!" He paused and stared at her in absolute shock. "Rose Tyler?"

"No, not her. You're imagining things. And why not?" she asked him. It was her casing, after all. Surely she got to decide whether or not to sit on herself.

"Because it's not a chair, it's the most dangerous weapon in the universe," he snapped, propelling her out the door.

She returned to her casing, sitting on it again as she now felt the need to prove something. She knew he was more angry she wasn't the girl than that she was sitting on a box. "Why can't it be both? Why did you park so far away? Didn't you want her to see it?"

He recoiled from her, presumably trying to figure out how she had made it back inside the building and picturing a different blonde. "Want who to see?"

"The TARDIS," she shrugged. Honestly, did he think she and Sexy didn't talk? The Moment, more than anyone, knew he wouldn't have let the human girl anywhere near this place and time. "You walked for miles, and miles and miles and miles and miles."

"I was thinking," he snapped defensively.

She nodded, "I heard you."

Now the grizzled soldier narrowed his eyes warily. "You heard me?"

All this seriousness was getting to her. Life required balance! She stomped around him, mocking his gruffness. "No more. No more."

"No more," he murmured before realizing he'd said it.

"No more. No more," she continued.

"Stop it," he demanded.

"No more," the Moment repeated, stopping right in front of him and grinning at the Doctor. Because he _was_ the Doctor. He might have decided he didn't deserve to be the Doctor, what with the years spent fighting and the choices he'd made that had aged him in this body, but he still was. He was trying to make the universe better – even if that meant removing his people from it.

"Who are you?"

She rolled her eyes, leaning against some crates as she moved a few of her gears within the box. At the sound of movement within the weapon he'd stolen and brought out into the wasteland, the man knelt next to it.

"It's activating. Get out of here," he ordered, moving to take hold of the box. When it burned his hands, however, he dropped it. "Ow!"

"What's wrong?" she asked him, smirking because she already knew.

"The interface is hot."

Deciding to be cheeky, she winked. "Well, I do my best."

"There's a power source inside," he said, mind racing. Then he stopped and looked up in shock. "You're the interface?"

She almost laughed – she did grin widely. As she explored the new moments of life she was about to give him, she moved to his side and patted his arm. "They must have told you the Moment had a conscience. Hello! Oh, look at you. Stuck between a girl and a box. Story of your life, eh, Doctor?"

She saw the flash of pain in his eyes, the only outward sign of his memories and thoughts as he asked, "You know me?"

She tapped her head. "I hear you. All of you, jangling around in that dusty old head of yours. I chose this face and form especially for you. It's from your past. Or possibly your future. I always get those two mixed up. Maybe it's both now?"

He shook his head, "I don't have a future. I shouldn't have a past."

"I think I'm called Rose Tyler. No. Yes. No, sorry, no, no, in this form, I'm called… Bad Wolf…" she purred those two words. That was it! Rose Tyler was Bad Wolf! The Weapon of the Moment! She tipped her head and watched him. "Are you afraid of the big bad wolf, Doctor?"

He jerked as though she'd hit him and resolutely changed the subject. "Stop calling me Doctor."

Oh no he didn't. After this moment in his life, everything was going to change and he was going to face it. "That's the name in your head. What _she_ calls you."

He glared at her, obviously angry that she kept bringing up his biggest weakness. "It shouldn't be. I've been fighting this war for a long time. I've lost the right to be her Doctor."

She smiled. "Then you're the one to save us all."

"Yes."

She couldn't stop herself from laughing at his seriousness. "If I ever develop an ego, you've got the job."

He glared at her. "If you have been inside my head, then you know what I've seen. The suffering. Every moment in time and space is burning. It must end, and I intend to end it the only way I can."

She tipped her head and quirked an eyebrow. "And you're going to use me to end it by killing them all, Daleks and Time Lords alike. I could, but there will be consequences for you."

He turned from her, unable to look at that face while he said, "I have no desire to survive this. Not even for her."

"Then that's your punishment," she said simply. "Because you are always going to see her again. If you do this, if you kill them all, then that's the consequence. You live. Gallifrey. You're going to burn it, and all those Daleks with it, but all those children too. How many children on Gallifrey right now?"

"I don't know."

"One day you will count them. One terrible night."

She showed him what would happen if he chose that path, and then she "stepped out" for a bit while he went to check on himself. More details needed to be seen to, and her child had a path to choose as well.

Within a moment she was standing in the bedroom of a sixteen year old Rose Tyler who was getting ready to go out.

"Ooh, perfect. I made it."

Rose jumped and spun to stare at the moment. "Who the hell are you? Why do you look like me?!"

The Moment smiled. "Because I wanted to. I just offered a great man a choice, and now I'm going to offer you one. You can go out with your friend… or you can come with me."

"What?"

The Moment sat on the girl's bed. "Look, let's just agree to believe me for a bit, all right?" she said slowly. "If you go with Shareen tonight, you'll date Jimmy Stone-" she paused at Rose's broad smile. "No, keep listening. He's going to ruin your life. He'll cheat, he'll hit, and he'll take everything you have and ruin it. You'll end up working in a shop you hate, living back here with your mum, hundreds in debt, and dating Mickey because he's the best option until someone comes along that you'd never even dream of trying for because you can't possibly believe you could be worth his regard."

The teen blinked, then sat hard next to the woman. "Well… that sorta puts a damper on the evening."

"Option two."

Rose looked up and blinked. "Option two?" she asked hopefully.

"Come with me. I'll give you the ability to visit your mum when you like, but you're going to end up changed."

"Changed how?"

The Moment grinned that same tongue-in-teeth grin that the Doctor loved on his Rose. "You won't even be human. You'll be… something unique."

"Go on," Rose laughed, clearly not believing her.

The older version laughed. "I know, it sounds crazy. But I can offer you the Universe, and a _very_ long time to explore it, and someone to enjoy it with. You'll get to do things no one would dare believe is possible. But it won't all be beautiful. There will be lots of hard decisions and sacrifices."

Rose hugged her knees. "Will my friends and family be all right? I mean, Mum will be able to pay her bills, and Mickey – he's still a nice bloke – will he still do okay?"

The Moment touched the girl's cheek. "I promise. They'll lead perfectly ordinary lives, in perfectly ordinary times. And you'll be so much more. Think about it, Rose. Do you really belong here?"

The girl closed her eyes. She'd always taken after her dad; a dreamer of impossible dreams. Suppose this was her chance to do something amazing? To make a difference somewhere? To be… extraordinary?

"Okay," she said, looking at the woman again. "Suppose I say yes? What happens then?"

The Moment hugged her. "Now I'm going to take you to the one who'll be your guide while you do this. We call her Sexy, and she's going to show you things, and teach you things, and she's even going to sort of adopt you. So I'm going to ask one more time, because there's no going back after this – are you certain you want to do this?"

Rose nodded. "I kinda feel like I'm supposed to, yeah?"

The Moment took her hands and just like that, they were standing in a white room with large circles on the walls and several doors to other places. In the center of the room was a hexagonal console with a large amount of buttons and a glowing tube in the middle.

"This place is a time and relative dimension in space, a living being grown by a race called the Time Lords who harness them into machines for travel through the universe to observe history at all points," the Moment explained.

Rose walked around in complete amazement. "And they help when they can?"

"They like to think they're above the other species, and they make a vow to never get involved," the woman laughed. "Funny little liars. The one you're going to be with is called the Doctor, and he is eventually going to break every rule there is to break. He's also going to be the one to save them all. But that's neither here nor there. You're here because he needs a partner and he's too egotistical to admit it even to himself."

The girl just blinked at her. "Me? But… you know I'm just like, sixteen, yeah? What am I gonna do?"

The Moment touched the girl's cheek again. "You're just going to be yourself. Trust me, that's all you need to be. First, we're going to join your soul to Sexy's soul, then she'll help you learn the rest."

Rose nodded, shaking in fear. "And I'll be helping people?"

"The whole universe, and maybe one or two more."

Rose took a deep breath. "All right… let's do this."

They moved to the console and the Moment gestured to a panel. "Open this, and look inside. Don't look away until you know it's done."

The teen nodded and sat cross-legged on the floor, reaching toward the panel. When the golden light flood into the room, it curled around her almost lovingly. There was no knowing how long she sat in communion with the time ship, as the Moment couldn't really be bothered to take note of such things, but finally the light receded on its own, leaving a very bemused girl sitting there.

"I've got to go now," the Moment said, after the TARDIS reassured her that Rose Tyler would not only live, but she'd be more than fine. "You know what you're going to do?"

Rose stood and smiled. "Be the Bad Wolf."

The Moment smiled at her creation and returned to the Doctor so quickly he never knew she'd left. The teen wandered off into her new home, curious about the many things she'd seen while being changed.

Several hours later, when Sexy left the museum and slipped into the Time Vortex, Rose made her way back to the console room to find an older white haired man and a black haired girl not much younger than herself standing at the controls.

"Hello, Doctor," she greeted him with a tongue-in-teeth smile. "We've been waiting for you."

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_A/N:Well? Better or worse than the one I replaced?_


End file.
